SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT: Garage Sale Kamikaze

We had promised ourselves we would never do it again. We lied. The cause was too good and the potential too high to not do it one more time. Yes, we embarked on yet another family garage sale. This time we were raising money for missions.

Where did we get all of this stuff? Item after item appeared from the attic as bags and boxes dropped from the ceiling! I am convinced we don’t throw anything away. Everything we ever owned must have been stored in the black hole above the garage. Once downloaded, our garage was stacked wall-to-wall with knick knacks, tools, furniture, clothes and toys.

Anyone who has ever suffered through a garage sale knows pricing is the toughest part. We developed a color coded system. Anything with a green sticker was 50 cents. Orange stickered items were a buck each. Yellow jewels were priced at $2. Items with a pink sticker were three smackers!

We invested in a classified ad and posted sale signs in the neighborhood in hopes of drawing a crowd. Had we forgotten there are people who make a living scouring garage sales in search of resalable treasures?

By 7 a.m., trucks and trailers could be heard outside our windows as the garage sale invaders perched anxiously on our driveway. We raised the garage door and they were on us. We cleared an inch and they took a mile. We couldn’t get the junk unshackled soon enough. My coffee hadn’t even kicked in before we had made $100!

I had always thought there were really only three types of people who visit garage sales. Professional garagesalers come early and look to get bargains before the competition arrives. The hunters arrive with a mission. They hope to bag a cherished collectable before a rookie happens upon it. Casual garagesalers are in it for the fun of finding something they can’t live without. These are the most common garage sale shoppers. However, there is a new breed of garage sale commando on the loose!

Unfortunately, we encountered our first kamikaze garagesaler. Nice enough at first, she became angry when we would not negotiate; having most everything marked down 25 cents wasn’t low enough. We explained we had priced everything to sell. She became so frustrated that she cussed at us and threatened to take down our garage sale signs. We remained polite despite her obnoxious behavior. Unfortunately, I had to call the police in order to get her to leave. As she whipped a U-turn in the street, she drove across our lawn in a fit of rage.

What a spectacle! Why such drama at a simple garage sale? I was reminded of Proverbs 29:11, “A fool gives full vent to his anger, but a wise man keeps himself under control.” Lord, help me learn from the kamikaze garagesaler. Few things warrant such behavior. Remind me of Proverbs 26:4 before it is too late. “Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you will be like him yourself.” This is it. No more garage sales for me!

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